Entries tagged with abilities

To be most effective as a White Mage, you need to understand what your available job abilities are. It also helps to understand what job traits you get, as some of them can influence how the job is played.

As /SCH with Light Arts active, Enhancing & Enfeebling get bumped up to a B- (skill cap 388 at job level 99).

You should work on capping your healing magic first, followed by enhancing, then enfeebling, then divine.

Job Abilities

White Mage gets the following job abilities:

Benediction - our 2-hour ability, obtained at level 1. Restores a large amount of HP and removes all status ailments for party members within area of effect. For an in-depth view, see the wiki.

Benediction generates a LARGE amount of enmity, so if you use it, there's a good chance you'll end up dead. This shouldn't prevent you from using it, though! You should always have reraise on, plus WHM suffers less from being weakened than other jobs (our primary issue is casting time reduction, followed by lower MP pool -- although the latter isn't an issue with temps and atma in Abyssea and Voidwatch).

To be honest, I haven't used Benediction in quite some time. To me, it's best used when the stakes are high: when death of the party would be disastrous. I would absolutely consider it if you're fighting a rare NM, or one whose pop item is annoying to get (ADL, PW, AV, etc). Also consider using it if you're in a timed group event, such as (lol)Legion or Einherjar. In Abyssea & Voidwatch, though? Eh....not really. Usually in those cases, death of the party/alliance just means letting the NM despawn and popping it again. One scenario where it might be good in those events is if the NM is at very low health or time is running low, and you want to make sure it's killed so you haven't wasted your time.

Divine Seal - Obtained at Level 15, it enhances the potency of the user's next healing spell.

For cures and curagas, this means it doubles the amount cured. Be aware that extra cure amount = extra enmity generated; a Divine Seal'd Curaga has a very good chance of drawing the mob's attention to you.

After level 50, Divine Seal can also be used for status removing. To quote wiki:

When activated in conjunction with the job trait Divine Veil (obtained at level 50), status removal spells change from single target to AoE.

* Functions with Poisona, Paralyna, Blindna, Silena, Cursna, Stona and Erase. * With the exception of Erase (party only), it is possible to cast a status heal onto someone else's party and have it become AoE for their party instead.

These days, I primary use Divine Seal for its Divine Veil effect.

A note for those who use the /RDM subjob: I highly suggest you do NOT use Divine Seal in your Convert macro to help cure you back to full health. Cure VI is usually sufficient to get most of your health back; you can then top yourself off with an additional cure if needed. Divine Seal should be used on the party, not yourself.

Afflatus Solace - obtained at Level 50. Inspires you to draw strength from the healing spells you cast. For a full description of what it does, see the wiki.

You'll be most interested in this job ability for the following affect:

Cure Spells: grants the target the effect of Stoneskin for a short duration; the effect is not exclusive to party members. Strength of Stoneskin varies with the type of Cure used (higher Cures provide a stronger Stoneskin). Effect is not applied to Cura or Curaga.

In the long run, Afflatus Solace's "cureskin" affect will save you MP as you'll need to cure less often. For this reason, you should develop the habit of activating it every time you zone in somewhere. The effect lasts 2 hours, and has a recast time of 1 minute.

Cureskin effect is 25% of HP cured, for a max of 300 HP. If you wear the Orison Bliaud +2, this is increased to 35% of the cured amount and raises the capped amount to 400 HP. Your goal should be to cap cure potency with other gear, so you can use the Orison Bliaud +2 for this increased effect.

The Sacrifice spell is best used while under Solace, as it becomes able to absorb up to 7 status ailments instead of 1, and will also become able to absorb most ailments that are typically only healed by Erase.

Other benefits of Solace include additional Magic Defense Bonus for your barspells, and a more potent Holy.

Afflatus Misery - also obtained at job level 40, it inspires you to draw strength from the damage you take. For a full list of what it does, see the wiki.

You'll be most increased in Misery for the following effect:

Esuna 2 status ailments instead of 1, and will become able to remove most status ailments that are typically only removable by Erase.

Auspice: adds light damage to initial attacks and an accuracy bonus when target is missed. These effects are applied to the WHM only, and only when Afflatus Misery is active. It is possible to cast Auspice while under Afflatus Solace, switch to Afflatus Misery afterward, and start receiving these effects without needing to recast Auspice.

Absolutely use Misery & Auspice if you're soloing; they help your DD efforts so, so much.

Other benefits of Misery include a stronger Cura and Banish. For details on this, see the wiki.

Divine Caress - obtained at level 83. If the next spell you cast cures a status ailment, your target will gain enhanced resistance to that ailment. Note that this doesn't work with Erase or Esuna.

There are a few reasons why I consider myself a good--even a very good--white mage, but not a great one. Divine Caress is a strong reason why. I'm aware of the ability, and have used it, but I simply tend to forget about it. This is something I intend to work on improving, and you should to.

Sacrosanctity - Our newest job ability. Obtained at level 95, it enhances magic defense for party members within area of effect.

Sacrosanctity is great for those "oh shit, the mob's about to use $MEGANUKE and we're low on HP!" moments. It wears off very quickly with damage -- basically, only good for taking one nuke. It also has a fairly long recast at 10 minutes. For this reason, I prefer to use it in the middle of a battle rather than at the start, as I feel it can do the most benefit then (mobs tend to be more likely to nuke/use devastating magical moves if they have TP fed to them, plus your party members will likely have lowered HP, might have had shell/barspells dispelled, might be weakened, etc).

Martyr - a merit JA which you can get at level 75, if you choose. Sacrifices HP to heal a party member double the amount.

Honestly... I don't see the point of this. I don't have it merited, and I don't suggest it. It might have been good back in the days when lack of MP was more of an issue, but with the current state of the game, you really shouldn't be having that problem. So you'll likely always have the MP to throw out another cure.

Plus, with proper gear/skill, our cures are quite potent now, so a Cure V/VI can cure a large chunk of a DD's HP. There's also Divine Seal if you really need to double a cure. So.... yeah, I wouldn't waste your merits on this.

Devotion - a merit JA which you can get at level 75, if you choose. Sacrifices HP to grant a party member the same amount in MP.

I really like this JA, and have 2 merits in it. If you choose to merit it, I wouldn't go over 2 merits; most of your Group 2 merits should go towards Protectra/Shellra V.

It's important to note that this JA works as a percentage of your current HP, so you should make sure to heal yourself to full before using it. If you have any gear that has HP on it, you should put that on (and cure yourself to full!) before using it, too. It's also pretty much a waste to use it when you're weakened.

If you choose to merit this ability, I strongly encourage you to consider making the Cleric's Cap +2. When augmented, it increases HP converted to MP by Devotion by 2.5% per merit level.

Other Job Abilities

You also gain access to additional job abilities from your subjob. In general, those are:

Elemental Seal - obtained with Black Mage set as your sub-job. Enhances the Magic Accuracy of the player's next spell. For WHM/BLM, it's best used when trying to stick an enfeeble such as Sleep(ga), Paralyze, Slow, etc. It has a ten-minute recast.

Convert - obtained with Red Mage set as your sub-job. Swaps current HP with MP. Convert is a primary reason why WHMs choose /RDM, as it allows you to get a mega-chunk of MP back in a jiffy. It has a ten-minute recast.

Scholar JAs - You obtain access to a whole bunch of job abilities with Scholar set as your subjob, which I described in detail in my How to /SCH article. In general, the job abilities you'd be most interested in are:

Magic Defense Bonus - Improves defense against magic spells. We get level VI at job level 91. This job trait is one reason why it can be fun to solo the Prime Avatar fights as WHM--their Astral Flow will barely hurt us!

Tranquil Heart - a job trait that was added fairly recently. Obtained at level 21, this trait reduces the enmity gain when casting healing magic. Before this trait existed, it was much easier for me to get too much enmity and thus have the mob's attention turned to me. Since the trait was added, this happens at a much, much less frequent rate.

Auto Regen - exactly what it says. We get Auto Regen II at level 76. It's strong enough to counteract the HP slip effect of Sublimation.

Divine Veil - obtained at level 50, this trait allows you to use Divine Seal to turn a -na/Erase into AoE. For additional details on how to use this, see my guide to removing status effects. The Orison Cap +1/+2 includes a small Divine Veil effect, which means that any -na/Erase you cast while wearing it has a chance of turning AoE, even if you don't activate Divine Seal. Definitely make sure you wear it while casting these spells. Professional WHMs (those for who WHM is their main job, and their passion) will want to look into building the mythic club, Yagrush, as it gives a permanent Divine Veil effect, making ALL your -na/Erases AoE. Someday I will have a Yagrush, oh yes I will....

Divine Benison - Quickens spellcasting for status ailment recovery magic. Grants a bonus to enmity reduction. We get Divine Benison V at job level 90. Basically, this makes your -na/Erase spells faster to cast. Orison Pantaloons +1/+2 increase its effect, so you should make sure to swap those in when casting your -na/Erases.